House of Games

In playwright David Mamet's directorial debut, best-selling psychiatrist Margaret Ford (Crouse) decides to confront the gambler who has driven one of her patients to the verge of suicide, and leaves her orderly, antiseptic life for a visit to the downtown lowlife House of Games. Mike (Mantegna) turns out to be swift and shifty, promising to cancel the patient's debts if Margaret sits in with him on a big money card game in the back room. Fascinated by the similarities between her trade and Mike's - both study human nature and trade on trust - Margaret hangs out with Mike and learns, to her cost, the intricacies of the sting. Mamet's glee in tracking the rackets and his ear for the great American aphasia - 'I'm from the United States of Kiss My Ass' - more than compensate for the sometimes flat direction, and the performances are splendid.